I’ve been in something of a funk lately. Even if we still had HP to kick around, I probably wouldn’t be posting very often. Long Story short, I do a radio show out of Brooklyn that’s also webcast. We do Friday nights, and I usually do the ‘politics’ section. I’m doing climate change/climate disruption stories at present.
But here’s the kicker. Last week I interviewed Guy McPherson, a controversial enviro scientist who’s talking human extinction in as little as two decades. His research into our habitat indicates that humans cannot survive in a climate that’s 2c degrees over baseline. We would probably be able to get around, but our food would stop growing and the acidification of the oceans would be such that they wouldn’t produce oxygen. But the latest figures from groups like the Bradley Center and IPCC indicate that temperature rises of 4c are probably a given before 2050. And the warming we’ve already seen is setting feedback loops that guarantee higher levels of warming–the melting of the Siberian permafrost means there will be thousands of gigatons of methane (much more damaging in terms of greenhouse effect than mere carbon dioxide) released into the atmosphere. The feedback loops and resultant warming are NOT part of the IPCC’s assessments. I wrote about this on my blogsite here. That’s human extinction and most of the rest of the animal kingdom saying goodbye.
This is on top of continuing crises at Fukushima. Latest details on that: the ice wall is having problems because (who could’ve guessed!) highly radioactive water maintains heat from the breakdown of the various radioactive isotopes. Therefore, won’t freeze. TEPCO has admitted they don’t know where the melted down cores of the reactors are–they may have melted through the structures. This was a major concern of muckraker/journo Michael C Ruppert, who took his own life in April after talking about human extinction in a VICE documentary called Apocalypse, Man. More information about him is here. Again, extinction, possibly of all multi-cellular creatures. All that has to happen is another ‘oops’ at the plant such as a building collapse due to an earthquake (the ground under the reactors has been turned into mud because of all the water being flooded in to keep more fuel from melting).
There are a zillion things MSM doesn’t want to touch (perhaps the contraction in GDP last quarter had something to do with 2.7 million families being thrown off extended UI benefits?) But I’m tired of the Repub-Dem puppet show.
This isn’t a post as much as it’s a desperate cry for help. McPherson is talking about Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in his presentations and our acceptance of the science. Can we please find better things to talk about than DC idiocy?
@Murph:
In regards to your words have meaning statement, what would you like me to do, go to congress and demand they declassify all documents pertaining to the Mujahadeen which later became Al Qaeda…I could, but we both know where that would get me. I believe there is enough evidence/proof floating around for you to be able to put 2 and 2 together and get the correct answer for that.
@MurphtheSurf:
You asked if I held to the belief that FDR conspired with Japan in the attack on Pearl Harbor. This is my belief regarding that matter. In the late nineteenth century, Japan’s economy began to grow and to industrialize rapidly. Because Japan has few natural resources, many of the burgeoning industries had to rely on imported raw materials, such as coal, iron ore or steel scrap, tin, copper, bauxite, rubber, and petroleum. Without access to such imports, many of which came from the United States or from European colonies in southeast Asia, Japan’s industrial economy would have ground to a halt. By engaging in international trade, however, the Japanese had built a moderately advanced industrial economy by 1941.
At the same time, they also built a military-industrial complex to support an increasingly powerful army and navy. These armed forces allowed Japan to project its power into various places in the Pacific and east Asia, including Korea and northern China, much as the United States used its growing industrial might to equip armed forces that projected U.S. power into the Caribbean and Latin America, and even as far away as the Philippine Islands.
The Roosevelt administration, while curtly dismissing Japanese diplomatic overtures to harmonize relations, imposed a series of increasingly stringent economic sanctions on Japan. In 1939 the United States terminated the 1911 commercial treaty with Japan. “On July 2, 1940, Roosevelt signed the Export Control Act, authorizing the President to license or prohibit the export of essential defense materials.” Under this authority, “on July 31, exports of aviation motor fuels and lubricants and No. 1 heavy melting iron and steel scrap were restricted.” Next, in a move aimed at Japan, Roosevelt slapped an embargo, effective October 16, “on all exports of scrap iron and steel to destinations other than Britain and the nations of the Western Hemisphere.” Finally, on July 26, 1941, Roosevelt “froze Japanese assets in the United States, thus bringing commercial relations between the nations to an effective end. One week later Roosevelt embargoed the export of such grades of oil as still were in commercial flow to Japan.
Roosevelt and his subordinates knew they were putting Japan in an untenable position before they attacked Pearl Harbor and that the Japanese government might well try to escape the stranglehold by going to war. Having broken the Japanese diplomatic code, the Americans knew, among many other things, what Foreign Minister Teijiro Toyoda had communicated to Ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura on July 31: “Commercial and economic relations between Japan and third countries, led by England and the United States, are gradually becoming so horribly strained that we cannot endure it much longer. Consequently, our Empire, to save its very life, must take measures to secure the raw materials of the South Seas.”
Because American cryptographers had also broken the Japanese naval code, the leaders in Washington knew as well that Japan’s “measures” would include an attack on Pearl Harbor. Knowing this they withheld this critical information from the commanders in Hawaii, who might have headed off the attack or prepared themselves to defend against it.
So NO, I do not believe FDR was in cahoots with the Japanese, on the contrary, he was in cahoots with the wealthy and other governments as I always say, war is a racket, and even though it would appear FDR was not working with the Japanese, he was using the same policies that this government has used since inception, create a bad guy and use him for your own purposes. So again, conspired with the Japanese no…utilized the Japanese for economic reasons and to boaster his career…Yes.
– Time Magazine June 24, 1974
A number of climatologists, whose job it is to keep an eye on long-term weather changes, have lately been predicting deterioration of the benign climate to which we have grown accustomed�.Various climatologists issued a statement that �the facts of the present climate change are such that the most optimistic experts would assign near certainty to major crop failure in a decade,� If policy makers do not account for this oncoming doom, �mass deaths by starvation and probably in anarchy and violence� will result. New York Times – December 29, 1974
Regardless of long term trends, such as the return of an Ice Age, unsettled weather conditions now appear more likely than those of the abnormally favorable period which ended in 1972. This possibility and its implications must be considered in planning and determining national and world food policies. There is an urgent need for better understanding and utilization of information on weather variability and climatic change in this context.– Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society – October 10, 1975
A RECENT flurry of papers has provided further evidence for the belief that the Earth is cooling. There now seems little doubt that changes over the past few years are more than a minor statistical fluctuation – Nature – March 6, 1975
Scientists, these seemingly disparate incidents represent the advance signs of fundamental changes in the world�s weather. The central fact is that after three quarters of a century of extraordinarily mild conditions, the earth�s climate seems to be cooling down. Meteorologists disagree about the cause and extent of the cooling trend, as well as over its specific impact on local weather conditions. But they are almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century. – The Cooling World Newsweek, April 28, 1975
�Scientist ponder why World�s Climate is changing; a major cooling is considered to be inevitable – New York Times May 21, 1975
This cooling has already killed hundreds of thousands of people. If it continues and no strong action is taken, it will cause world famine, world chaos and world war, and this could all come about before the year 2000. — Lowell Ponte “The Cooling”, 1976
An international team of specialists has concluded from eight indexes of climate that there is no end in sight to the cooling trend of the last 30 years, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. – New York Times – January 5, 1978
One of the questions that nags at climatologists asks when and how fast a new ice age might descend. A Belgian scientist suggests this could happen sooner and swifter than you might think. – Christian Science Monitor – Nov 14, 1979
Evidence has been presented and discussed to show a cooling trend over the Northern Hemisphere since around 1940, amounting to over 0.5°C, due primarily to cooling at mid- and high latitudes – Present Climatic Cooling and a Proposed Causative Mechanism – Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society – November 1980
A global warming trend could bring heat waves, dust-dry farmland and disease, the experts said… Under this scenario, the resort town of Ocean City, Md., will lose 39 feet of shoreline by 2000 and a total of 85 feet within the next 25 years – San Jose Mercury News – June 11, 1986
Greenhouse Effect Culprit May Be Family Car; New Ice Age by 1995?…As the tropical oceans heat up (due to increased greenhouse gases), more of their moisture is evaporated to form clouds. The increasing pole-tropic wind systems move some of these additional clouds toward the poles, resulting in increased winter rainfall, longer and colder winters and the gradual buildup of the polar ice sheets. This phenomenon has come to be widely recognized by climatologists in recent years. What most of them do not recognize is that this process may be the engine that drives the 100,000-year cycle of major ice ages, for which there is no other plausible explanation….we may be less than seven years away, and our climate may continue to deteriorate rapidly until life on earth becomes all but unsupportable…. New York Times – Larry Ephron , Director of the Institute for a Future – July 15, 1988
[In New York City by 2008] The West Side Highway [which runs along the Hudson River] will be under water. And there will be tape across the windows across the street because of high winds. And the same birds won�t be there. The trees in the median strip will change. There will be more police cars. Why? Well, you know what happens to crime when the heat goes up… Under the greenhouse effect, extreme weather increases. Depending on where you are in terms of the hydrological cycle, you get more of whatever you�re prone to get. New York can get droughts, the droughts can get more severe and you�ll have signs in restaurants saying �Water by request only.� – James Hansen testimony before Congress in June 1988
STUDY FORESEES 86 NEW POWER PLANTS TO COOL U.S. WHEN GLOBE GETS HOTTER: Global warming could force Americans to build 86 more power plants — at a cost of $110 billion — to keep all their air conditioners running 20 years from now, a new study says…Using computer models, researchers concluded that global warming would raise average annual temperatures nationwide two degrees by 2010, and the drain on power would require the building of 86 new midsize power plants – Associated Press May 15, 1989
U.N. OFFICIAL PREDICTS DISASTER SAYS GREENHOUSE EFFECT COULD WIPE SOME NATIONS OFF MAP – entire nations could be wiped off the face of the earth by rising sea levels if global warming is not reversed by the year 2000. Coastal flooding and crop failures would create an exodus of “eco-refugees,” threatening political chaos, said Brown, director of the New York office of the U.N. Environment Program. He said governments have a 10-year window of opportunity to solve the greenhouse effect – Associated Press June 30, 1989
‘New York will probably be like Florida 15 years from now,’ – St. Louis Post-Dispatch Sept. 17, 1989
Some predictions for the next decade (1990’s) are not difficult to make… Americans may see the ’80s migration to the Sun Belt reverse as a global warming trend rekindles interest in cooler climates. – Dallas Morning News December 5th 1989
“(By) 1995, the greenhouse effect would be desolating the heartlands of North America and Eurasia with horrific drought, causing crop failures and food riots… “(By 1996) The Platte River of Nebraska would be dry, while a continent-wide black blizzard of prairie topsoil will stop traffic on interstates, strip paint from houses and shut down computers… “The Mexican police will round up illegal American migrants surging into Mexico seeking work as field hands”. – Michael Oppenheimer, The Environmental Defense Fund – “Dead Heat” 1990
Giant sand dunes may turn Plains to desert – Huge sand dunes extending east from Colorado’s Front Range may be on the verge of breaking through the thin topsoil, transforming America’s rolling High Plains into a desert, new research suggests. The giant sand dunes discovered in NASA satellite photos are expected to re- emerge over the next 20 to 50 years, depending on how fast average temperatures rise from the suspected “greenhouse effect,” scientists believe. -Denver Post April 18, 1990
By 2000, British and American oil will have dimished to a trickle……Ozone depletion and global warming threaten food shortages, but the wealthy North will enjoy a temporary reprieve by buying up the produce of the South. Unrest among the hungry and the ensuing political instability, will be contained by the North’s greater military might. A bleak future indeed, but an inevitable one unless we change the way we live…..At present rates of exploitation there may be no rainforest left in 10 years. If measures are not taken immediately, the greenhouse effect may be unstoppable in 12 to 15 years. – 5000 Days to Save the Planet – Edward Goldsmith 1991
”I think we’re in trouble. When you realize how little time we have left – we are now given not 10 years to save the rainforests, but in many cases five years. Madagascar will largely be gone in five years unless something happens. And nothing is happening.” – ABC – The Miracle Planet April 22, 1990
The planet could face an “ecological and agricultural catastrophe” by the next decade if global warming trends continue – Carl Sagan – Buffalo News Oct. 15, 1990
Most of the great environmental struggles will be either won or lost in the 1990s and by the next century it will be too late. — Thomas E. Lovejoy, Smithsonian Institution �Real Goods Alternative Energy Sourcebook,� Seventh Edition: February 1993
Today (in 1996) 25 million environmental refugees roam the globe, more than those pushed out for political, economic, or religious reasons. By 2010, this number will grow tenfold to 200 million. – The Heat is On -The High Stakes Battle Over Earth�s Threatened Climate – Ross Gelbspan – 1996
“It appears that we have a very good case for suggesting that the El Ninos are going to become more frequent, and they’re going to become more intense and in a few years, or a decade or so, we’ll go into a permanent El Nino. So instead of having cool water periods for a year or two, we’ll have El Nino upon El Nino, and that will become the norm. And you’ll have an El Nino, that instead of lasting 18 months, lasts 18 years,” he said. – BBC November 7, 1997
One of the world’s leading climate experts warned of an underestimated threat posed by the buildup of greenhouse gases ‘ an abrupt collapse of the ocean’s prevailing circulation system that could send temperatures across Europe plummeting in a span of 10 years. If that system shut down today, winter temperatures in the North Atlantic region would fall by 20 or more degrees Fahrenheit within 10 years. Dublin would acquire the climate of Spitsbergen, 600 miles north of the Arctic Circle. “The consequences could be devastating,” said Wallace S. Broecker, Newberry Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University’s – Science Magazine Dec 1, 1997
Scientists are warning that some of the Himalayan glaciers could vanish within ten years because of global warming. A build-up of greenhouse gases is blamed for the meltdown, which could lead to drought and flooding in the region affecting millions of people. – The Birmingham Post (England) July 26, 1999
A report last week claimed that within a decade, the disease (Malaria) will be common again on the Spanish coast. The effects of global warming are coming home to roost in the developed world. – The Guardian September 11, 1999
�But it does not take a scientist to size up the effects of snowless winters on the children too young to remember the record-setting blizzards of 1996. For them, the pleasures of sledding and snowball fights are as out-of-date as hoop-rolling, and the delight of a snow day off from school is unknown.� – Dr. Michael Oppenheimer of the Environmental Defense Fund New York Times – January 2000
Britain’s winter ends tomorrow with further indications of a striking environmental change: snow is starting to disappear from our lives. Sledges, snowmen, snowballs and the excitement of waking to find that the stuff has settled outside are all a rapidly diminishing part of Britain’s culture, as warmer winters – which scientists are attributing to global climate change – produce not only fewer white Christmases, but fewer white Januaries and Februaries. – Charles Onians -UK Independent Mar 20, 2000
Within a few years winter snowfall will become a very rare and exciting even. Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” Dr David Viner, Senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia – Mar 20, 2000
Officials with the Panama Canal Authority, managers of the locks and reservoirs since the United States relinquished control of the canal in 1999, warn that global warming, increased shipping traffic and bigger seagoing vessels could cripple the canal’s capacity to operate within a decade. CNN November 1, 2000
In ten years time, most of the low-lying atolls surrounding Tuvalu’s nine islands in the South Pacific Ocean will be submerged under water as global warming rises sea levels, CNN Mar 29, 2001
“Globally, 2002 is likely to be warmer than 2001 – it may even break the record set in 1998. – Daily Mirror August 2, 2002
Next year(2003)may be warmest recorded: Global temperatures in 2003 are expected to exceed those in 1998 – the hottest year to date – Telegraph UK- December 30, 2002
(The) extra energy, together with a weak El Nino, is expected to make 2005 warmer than 2003 and 2004 and perhaps even warmer than 1998 – Reuters February 11, 2005
Environmental refugees to top 50 million in 5 years –“There are well-founded fears that the number of people fleeing untenable environmental conditions may grow exponentially as the world experiences the effects of climate change and other phenomena,” says UNU-EHS Director Janos Bogardi. – United Nations University news release – October 11, 2005
NOAA announced its predictions for the 2006 hurricane season, saying it expects an “above normal” year with 13-16 named storms. Of these storms, the agency says it expects four to be hurricanes of category 3 or above, double the yearly average of prior seasons in recorded history. With experts calling the coming hurricane season potentially worse than last year’s, oil prices have jumped 70 cents per barrel in New York and made similar leaps elsewhere. Economists anticipate that demand for oil will rise sharply over the summer, when as many as four major hurricanes could hit the United States. — Seed Magazine 5/19/06
This year (2007) is likely to be the warmest year on record globally, beating the current record set in 1998, – ScienceDaily Jan. 5, 2007
Very Active 2007 Hurricane Season Predicted – The U.S. Atlantic basin will likely experience a very active hurricane season, the Colorado State University forecast team announced today, increasing its earlier prediction for the 2007 hurricane season. The team’s forecast now anticipates 17 named storms forming in the Atlantic basin between June 1 and Nov. 30. Nine of the 17 storms are predicted to become hurricanes, and of those nine, five are expected to develop into intense or major hurricanes (Saffir/Simpson category 3-4-5) with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater. – ScienceDaily April 3, 2007
Warm (2007 – 2008) Winter Predicted for United States – NOAA forecasters are calling for above-average temperatures over most of the country – ScienceDailyOct. 11, 2007
Scientists in the US have presented one of the most dramatic forecasts yet for the disappearance of Arctic sea ice. Their latest modelling studies indicate northern polar waters could be ice-free in summers within just 5-6 years. Professor Wieslaw Maslowski told an American Geophysical Union meeting that previous projections had underestimated the processes now driving ice loss. “Our projection of 2013 for the removal of ice in summer is not accounting for the last two minima, in 2005 and 2007,” the researcher from the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, explained to the BBC. “So given that fact, you can argue that may be our projection of 2013 is already too conservative.” Professor Maslowski’s group, which includes co-workers at Nasa and the Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS), is well known for producing models that are in advance of other teams. – BBC Dec. 12, 2007
Arctic warming has become so dramatic that the North Pole may melt this summer (2008), report scientists studying the effects of climate change in the field. “We’re actually projecting this year that the North Pole may be free of ice for the first time [in history],” David Barber, of the University of Manitoba, told National Geographic News aboard the C.C.G.S. Amundsen, a Canadian research icebreaker. – National Geographic News June 20, 2008
I think it’s valid to look at the predictions that have been wrong. I would note that global cooling was not something anticipated by climatologists in the period when Time wrote articles on it. The problem should also go under the name Global Climate disruption, which means that while the trend is toward warming, there will be much broader swings in temperature. A year ago, a freak early snowstorm hit the Dakota’s early in the season and killed thousands of cattle, which hadn’t grown winter coats yet and usually don’t have to until November. Some other notes:
* the computer modeling to simulate climate change scenarios is orders of magnitude better than it was even five years ago;
* In the lecture I link to on my page, McPherson spends much of the first five minutes talking about the predictors who prognosticated about carbon-driven global warming.
* All of these effects are subject to Chaos theory, which holds that very minor changes in wind or temperature can have huge unpredictable effects.
McPherson gives a list of known predictions over the past few years on his website here:
http://guymcpherson.com/2013/01/climate-change-summary-and-update/
Mankind is not the only one suffering. Let’s not forget the creatures already struggling for survival because of us. They have families too, and have no idea what is going on.
—-
GoPro: Polar Bears – The Quest for Sea Ice
I hope no one here thinks I’m unaware of what’s happening to other species. Well aware of the specieist argument. I think it’s necessary to call out people who say dumb things like “I don’t give a Sh*t about the snail darter” and tell them we’re a species too and our fate on this planet is tied to the rest of the animal kingdom.
No Mbx, that wasn’t my intention at all, I just thought it would be an appropriate addition to your article.
Welcome to The Planet btw.
People,without the political will in America and the other big CO2 emitters,the slide will continue.I personally think we have reached the tipping point.I really hope I am wrong,but we have to be realistic.What needs to be done won’t get done for the reason I stated in my opening line
WHERE’S THE HEADLINE ON HUMAN EXTINCTION (as a direct result of Climate Change)(in the not too distant future)?
Indeed.
Well, there is one right here.
I would like your permission to reprint this post at Daily Kos.
My headline would be: Climate Change Threatens Human Extinction in Two Decades
I have to say that I find the counter arguments that take on McPherson’s thesis and challenge his evidence equally as interesting. Here is one of them: http://fractalplanet.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/how-guy-mcpherson-gets-it-wrong/
The author there, Scott Johnson, says that “In many ways, McPherson is a photo-negative of the self-proclaimed “climate skeptics” who reject the conclusions of climate science. He may be advocating the opposite conclusion, but he argues his case in the same way.”
He then goes on to analyze the claims and the science in support of or in opposition to them.
It makes for interesting reading.
Now I am going to sound like a Republican….I am not a scientist. But I know who the scientists are and I the reality of climate change is the common ground on which almost all of them stand. The vast majority of that number also believe that while there are many factors contributing to global warming, cooling; to the quality of the air, the water, the land; to the survival of flora and fauna….that human activity especially in regard to fossil fuel burning has contributed significantly to those changes.
I find debate like that represented by McPherson’s claims and Johnson’s counter claims. Neither has done original research and both claim to be reporting the work of those who have.
We need more of this. The debate is essential if for no other reason than having it moves more and more onto the common ground.
I want to thank you joining us and for offering us this insightful and disturbing essay/article.
Murph–
This was more of a rant than anything else, and I’ve been thinking of posting on Kos in a couple days. I would want to clean up some of the factoids, for example. I will let you know.
I’ve read some of the critiques of McPherson’s work. I don’t discount them, and on McPherson’s weekly update, he readily admits to using worst case scenarios. But climate change isn’t the only crisis he (and others) are addressing. There are several other problems converging at the same time. Fukushima is exhibit A. Peak oil/peak resources is exhibit B. Tim Garrett has argued that only economic collapse can forestall climate disaster, but as McPherson and the late Michael Ruppert both postulated, once industrial civilization collapses, the world’s nuclear power plants will go into meltdown mode unless we’ve had the foresight to decommission them first. As for the end of cheap oil–If we’re at peak energy, what’s going to keep the Fukushima ice-wall functioning for the next century or so?
I don’t have the answers, and I don’t think that anybody does. It is possible that McPherson is wrong about human extinction coming within a decade. But the situation is far more dire than you’d think from looking at what makes the top of the MSM mastheads.
I have many thoughts on this and will get back to you later on tonight….so glad to make your acquaintance.
A human-centered world view only values other species by what they can do for us, or for “our children’s children.” We’re collectively so centered on our own species that nothing matters except in relation to ourselves.
It’s like our ancient view of the universe with Earth at the center: it took a long time for people to accept that our planet is just one of many orbiting a star, which is also just one of many in a galaxy, which is also just one of many in the universe.
An Earth-centered world view sees Homo sapiens as one of tens of millions of species in Earth’s biosphere. We are exceptional in many ways, and so are the other life forms we share this rare and wonderful place with.
How wonderful it is for us as homo sapiens, keepers of the earth, so to speak, to feel we have the ability to do anything that would preserve the planet we live on. We leave our lights on when they are not needed, gas up our cars and go for a drive, not to grandmothers home or to visit a friend that may be ill and shut in, no, we do this just to enjoy nature or get away from the house for a little while, or to entertain the kids, or for whatever reason we may feel is necessary at the moment. Conserve, why, we have fracking now so we won’t have to conserve as much. Limit carbon emissions, why? We aren’t warming the earth, the earth has always had cycles of warming and cooling. Fool ourselves? Would we do that, of course not, but one has to take into account the many jobs that could be lost if we begin to conserve, what will happen to the people that lose their jobs and can’t find another, isn’t this a form of slow death or extinction for them? These are some of the questions and statements I hear in conversations regarding climate change. I have also heard someone say, well if we become extinct, it was all a part of God’s plan so why worry about it, at any rate, the earth will not last forever, and if I die tomorrow, won’t that be the same as if the planet ceases to exist, won’t that be extinction for me?
Very sad the state of being of most humans on this planet. We live for ourselves, for the moment, we disregard the lives of other species on this planet, we dirty the water, pollute the air, and continue to procreate without worrying about what type of world our creations will be forced to try to exist in….maybe extinction is the only way to rid the earth of human beings that are so far off course it appears there is no way to reverse the trajectory.
The BODY. This is your PHYSICAL component of being. It is flesh made from a collection of unremarkable mineral elements (but is mostly water) and is in harmony with the nature and spirit of this world. It grows, matures, begins to deteriorate, eventually dies, and then decomposes back into its constituent elements and remains a part of the dust of the world. The body is a part of you but is NOT ALL of what defines who YOU are.
The SOUL. This is who YOU are; it is a part of your SPIRITUAL component. This is your individuality, your “I AM” so to speak (made in God’s image), your “heart.” Although your individual soul did not exist before your mother and father procreated you, it will exist forever. It cannot be killed by man
The SPIRIT. This is the source of power and control for both your body and soul; it is either evil or good, darkness or light, unholy or Holy, unclean or clean, of Satan or of God (Satan representing evil, God representing all that is good in this context).
I say, look within yourself for the answer you seek regarding global warming/climate change, don’t allow yourself to be in a funk, anyone can allow themselves to be blue, sad, down in the dumps, the answer is rise up and do your part to be the change you are looking for. We all can do our part to help try to solve the problem of global warming, it all starts with the man in the mirror, and if you do what you can and every other human does what he/she can, the problem will begin to be solved. This is my solemn belief.
Monicaangela, I’m working on the People’s Climate March, which is coming up on September 21–the UN has finally convened a summit to address the issue (The US didn’t show up in Copenhagen in 2009, and so many other governments also blew it off).
The science looks very close to irrefutable. But I also take to heart something that McPherson has said–if you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t–then do.
Misterbadexample, I have heard of this People’s Climate March, but have been unable to get much information on it in regards to how an individual can get involved. Who is doing the planning for this? How did the idea for this get started? Where does one go in his/her area of the country to participate? Do you have more information you could share with me?
The website http://peoplesclimate.org/march/ is currently taking people’s email addresses. I know the march will be on the weekend of the 20th. The people I’m working with are coordinating the arts and media around the week. I’ll probably be doing some iteration of my one man show HOW TO STOP THE EMPIRE WHILE KEEPING YOUR DAY JOB. Current version on YouTube, it will be rewritten to talk about things people need to do (including protest).
I will be there, I have a flight to Germany scheduled for the 22nd, so I will change my flight plans, I’m going to Germany on vacation so a day or two give or take won’t make a big difference. I will reschedule my 9/22 flight to begin in New York instead of where I live if that can be arranged. I hope to learn a lot at this march and hopefully I will be able to make a few good contacts. Thanks for the info. 🙂
Great metaphor…..an earth centered universe misorients those who believe in it….a human centered earth does the same thing. Bravo. Well said.
When we see ourselves only as the users of the earth we become the losers of the earth.
MBX, to me this is why we need to accelerate our use of renewable energy sources like solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass.
I love not having to pay for my electricity since Oct. 08.
And how is it you are doing this? Have you written an article about it? You should!
This website has detailed information about a renewable future. I like it because it focuses on solutions rather than despair. Their main point is “The World Can Transition to 100% Clean, Renewable Energy Starting Today”
http://thesolutionsproject.org/#tsp-section-story
even if we were to do so
It would take 100 years before a discernible effect would be seen on our current climate trajectory
Do you know that for a fact? And do you mean to imply we should just give up and let it happen? I think future generations would appreciate it if we did all we can now, whether we feel like giving up or not.
GreenChica, that is the implication of the various reports. The problem is that the reports for climate change are done by one group of Climatology scientists. and the implications of the reports have to be sorted out by people like McPherson whose specialty is in evolutionary biology and such. What the latest reports from groups like IPCC and Bradley Center and the Arctic Emergency group indicate is warming to 3.5 deg celsius above baseline in a matter of a decade or so. McPherson and his biology colleagues can tell you that life on this planet doesn’t do very well at 3.5 c and even if humans can survive such temperatures, our food and our primary source of oxygen (plankton) can’t.
I am with you in this challenge.
Let’s assume this is so….what then are you suggesting? Do what, or not do what? Specifics please.
Dimbulb,
I seriously question the validity of your statement…
Perhaps you could provide a link, or two.
However, even if it was true, let us examine what 100 years represents in the lifespan of this particular planet…
Seen through our eyes, it is a generation or two…
However seen through the lens of the age of the planet, it is but a mere blip.
Humans purportedly possess superior mental abilities
compared to the other species we share this planet with.
Would not a superior mind be able to put a blip in time, (100 years), in perspective in regards to the entire lifespan of the planet, our solar system, galaxy and beyond?
We are a mere grain of sand in this universe…
What about the possibility that the number of universes is infinite?
100 years?
If blowing your nose could prevent you from passing on a chronic respiratory illness to your offspring, would you not purchase and use a box of Kleenex?
GC, the sun , if we could capture all its energy in one day could provide all the electricity we would need for many days. We need to put some work into capturing that energy because it is there and it is clean!
Thanks. I took a quick look excellent.
I wonder if the Planet should have a page dedicated to Green related issues.
Worth exploring.
I used to hike with a woman who spent the entire hike telling me how we were all gonna die due to climate change but that she was just going to enjoy her life because it wasn’t going to happen until after her death. It became unbearable and I lost my interest in hiking with her. (Didn’t think much of her values either.) I agree that this issue is more important than all the petty bs that goes on in Washington and elsewhere, but if humans have the will I think there’s a good chance we can figure out a way to fix things. It’s creating that will that’s the problem. This is unprecedented so I don’t think anyone really knows what is going to happen.
So, did you smear her shoes with bear bait hoping for an intervention from Mother Nature? I know that is how I would feel.
Still that person captures the thinking of so many. I help to run a coop. Part of what we do is recycle. We have managed to become a center for area recycling and from about 25 farms we are collecting several TONS of recyclable material a year. Every now and then someone makes the point that we are such a small piece in the puzzle. I have been edified to see how quickly this POV is closed down by the assertion that little by little eventually becoming more and more.
I think recycling, how ever small an endeavor, is just a smart thing to do. In Mass, they’ve had a five cent deposit law on bottles and cans for a few decades now. This is one reason that so much of that state is almost litter free.
Recycling is a really big thing on Cape Cod, not just with bottles and cans, but also metal, plastic and cardboard/paper. It’s a beautiful place and I have no doubt that recycling has played a big part in keeping it that way.
KT, Vermont also has the same bottle deposit law. We also do not have billboards or much litter. Every spring we all go out and pick up litter along the roadsides. We call it green up day.
Nirek, I have heard great things about Vermont for many years now. I had at one time thought about moving there.
KT, Vermont is a very progressive state. Lots of people come to visit and wind up either staying or coming back to stay.
Vermont was the first state to legislate gay marriage. Vermont was the first to outlaw slavery. Vermont is first in lots of good ways.
I will be certain to bring up the point that Mass is doing it- Missourans are so impressed by Mass. initiatives…..on second thought…on the down-low.
But seriously, at a meeting last year of those involved with this effort, one of the locals noted that almost everything we were recycling reminded him how much we waste and that this has led him to figure out how to recycle on his farm- how to recycle internally.
Misterbadexample, there is no question that the most important crisis for the human race is not repealing Obamacare but the destruction of a habitable planet due to Climate Change.
It’s literally a matter of life or death but because it impacts the hording of wealth by the wealthy, it has been ignored, shoved aside and propagandized against in the MSM.
As severe as the considered projections are about how soon Climate Change could threaten much of the Earth’s population, there are signs that the impetus to take meaningful action is growing.
The sad thing is that, as is typical for Americans, we don’t plan ahead, we wait until a predictable disaster has come down the road and plowed us over…then we try to do something to address the damage it’s wrought.
Recently, there have been numerous stories about the financial impact of Climate Change and as angering as it is that the only way to get the greedy to want to do something to save the human race is to threaten their wealth, that is the case. More and more corporations and the wealthy seem to be reticently acknowledging that if nothing is done about Climate Change, they will lose money.
So the resistance to taking action seems to be softening.
What is a pity is that it will probably take more major disasters brought about by Climate Change until enough of the wealth class come to the screamingly obvious conclusion that destroying the planet is bad for business.
What can we do then, when the warming of the planet is in full swing and propagating even greater warming?
Reducing carbon emissions at that point won’t reverse Climate Change (but it needs to be done to have any hope in reversing it) so we will have to not only be working with the rest of the world to deal with massive problems worldwide but we will need to implement innovative solutions to sequestering CO2 and fostering greater reflection of heat from the planet. There are myriad logical and viable proposals to address and attempt to reverse Climate Change, it is not hopeless or necessarily unavoidable but it will take an unprecedented commitment around the world to have a chance to win this fight.
It’s messed up that Americans typically won’t take action that’s needed until they are suffering enough from the problem they’ve ignored for too long. Though so much unnecessary destruction and suffering now seems ahead for us, when things get bad enough, I think the pressure to take drastic actions will build as well.
“What is a pity is that it will probably take more major disasters brought about by Climate Change until enough of the wealth class come to the screamingly obvious conclusion that destroying the planet is bad for business.”
I hate to disagree with this assertion, Adlib, however their business models will produce revenue for their carbon-based businesses until irreversible disaster is visited on us for one simple reason: they believe their wealth will insulate them from the deprivations that will occur.
Enlightenment is not something that is in their personal or corporate makeup. The selfishness of the rich is as endemic as it is obvious.
Let’s take the example of when Goldman Sacks cornered the market on wheat in the mid 2000s and directly caused the deaths of millions worldwide when they jacked the price up so high countries could no longer afford to feed their neediest citizens:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/27/how_goldman_sachs_created_the_food_crisis
Compassion is completely absent in the business mindset at this level, and to expect that even the prospect of somehow making money on sustainable green technologies that could save man’s existence on the planet be on their radar is doubtful.
We’re talking about people so dissipated that they justify their continued rape of the world’s resources at the expense of a future by believing that they’ll always have money for expensive food, air conditioning, $20/gal. gasoline, etc, until they die.
They don’t care, and nothing we can do will ever make them do so because they have denatured the public. They own the politicians, they own the courts (remember affluenza?), the control the money supply down to the poorest person making minimum wage in this country, and if you have a job working for someone else, they probably own you too.
The wealthy have turned this country, and most of the rest of the world, into a fearful, pay-as-you-go existence where animus toward one’s neighbors, coworkers and even friends is automatic in the face of the threat of financial ruin…which, in most cases, is the simple fact of losing one’s job.
The psychology of our culture has been upended in one generation epitomized by the character Gordon Gekko’s missive uttered in the original movie, Wall Street: “Greed is good.”
When people ask the question, “What can be done?” I have to answer that I don’t believe anything can or will be done owing to the ubiquity of the dumbing down of America.
We have a class of citizen so infused with fear, fear of the “other,” fear of losing what little they have, fear of colored people on welfare getting what they deserve, fear of ______________<- insert the latest fear-stoking talking point here, that about half of the people in this country are incapable of understanding or evaluating effectively what's really good for them.
This circumstance is deliberate, it all started with the Nixon administration. President Nixon declared war on the intelligentsia during the Vietnam war because the anti-war movement was born on college and high school campuses.
Ever since then the goal of educating Americans has been absent from our national policy. I submit as evidence the fact that since 1972 the scoring indexes of the SAT and ACT have been revised downward nearly 20 times, maybe more by now as I have not kept up since the mid 2000s when we did the study.
A student who scores the same today as I did back then is, well there's really no nice way to put it, educationally retarded. This is by design. The movie "Idiocracy" is now a Documentary.
And the most visible evidence recently was the unfunded mandate No Child Left Behind. Following the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy the mandate was turned into a means of defunding whole school systems and turning out "graduates" of high schools little better equipped than to make change at McDonalds.
Ignorant people lack the necessary resources to even begin to bring those responsible for the effects of global climate change to change their practices for they have no clue.
And to expect our media in this country to somehow produce any objective report on the coming disaster is foolish. That ship sailed when all the news divisions of the major networks were rolled in under the entertainment divisions and were required to start making a profit.
And as we all well know, the boards of directors of the media companies wield considerable influence over what their employees in the "news" divisions report.
So, in conclusion {chuckle}, the Headline on Human Extinction is right where it's supposed to be…out of sight, out of mind to a populace less than 90 days from financial ruin on any given day.
Miles “SSDD” Long
I agree 100% with your statement. Those that you speak of have learned to make money from the misery of others, whether it be war, from which they make money from the sale of weapons etc., natural disaster, they make money from replacing homes, furnishings, replacing cars, etc., even if lives are lost, they make money when the bodies need to be buried/disposed of, they feel no matter what the miserable situation the world might find itself in, they, the vultures of this world will capitalize. I believe they feel that no matter what happens to the world, they win, they believe they will be the last left standing. I believe many of them feel that something like the great floods and Noah’s Ark will happen, and they will be Noah and the rest of us will be those less fortunate, yes, I believe that is their mindset…sad isn’t it. 🙂
Miles- take a look at the post I left for Ad Lib. I think it speaks to your point as well.
Wrote this at DK….resonates with your position rather well.
Big $$$$$ Group Sounds Climate Change Alarm Bells
Hundreds of Billions of Dollars….in property under water or without water; in lost production hours; in compensatory energy costs; and in lost crop yields.
The study, commissioned by the Risky Business Project report, which describes itself as nonpartisan and is chaired by former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, former Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Thomas F. Steyer, a former hedge fund manager, makes the case for long-term business planning and for reducing emissions blamed for heating the planet.
Key findings:
– $66 billion to $106 billion in coastal property below sea level by 2050 with the Northeast the most affected,
– Up to $701 billion worth of existing coastal property will below mean sea levels, with more than $730 billion of additional property at risk during high tide
– Labor productivity of outdoor workers could be reduced by 3-5 percent with the Southeast the most affect with up to 120 days a year of Plus 95 degree air temperatures.
– 14 percent increase in the demand for electricity for cooling and heating costing customers up to $19 billion per year.
– 11,000 to 36,000 additional deaths a year directly related to climate change.
– Crop yield reductions in the Midwest by 19 percent in the mid-century and by 63 percent at the end of the century.
– 18 percent reduction in the amount of potable/drinkable ground water
The report was created by a coalition of mega-wealthy business leaders, former federal cabinet officers, policy specialists and scientists as a call to action by the business community.
The report concludes:“With this report, we call on the American business community to rise to the challenge and lead the way in helping reduce climate risks. We hope the Risky Business Project will facilitate this action by providing critical information about how climate change may affect key sectors and regions of our national economy.”
The Economic Risks of Climate Change in the United States
http://riskybusiness.org/
http://online.wsj.com/…
http://www.greenbiz.com/…
http://thenextgeneration.org/…
Yeah, about the only thing Bloomberg ever did that I agreed with is talk about climate issues. the things that would be called on to protect NYC alone from another Sandy event have a minimum $10 B pricetag.
Maybe if we did some of the things in my article.
http://planetpov.com/2014/04/24/keystone-xl-pipeline-lies/#comments
or this one
http://planetpov.com/2014/05/25/nascar-could-make-a-difference-if-they-worked-on-electric-cars/
I wish we’d started on electrics about 40 years ago, but I don’t think that solves the problem. First, the electricity comes from power grids that are already at or over capacity. Second the act of creating a car is oil-intensive regardless of what it uses as a power-plant–all that plastic and glass and paint uses lots of energy and oil. Cars represent a minimum of 20 barrels of oil in manufacture and maintenance. And the powerplants of EVs use the same rare earth metals as wind turbines and some PV glass–and the metals are called ‘rare’ for a reason. I’m not sure cars are in our future. Even conventionally powered cars are in trouble if our oil sources are shale and tar sands–gas prices will put what James Kunstler calls ‘happy motoring’ to an end. If only the 1% can afford to drive, there’s going to be huge taxpayer pushback on subsidizing roads and highways.
Totally in agreement on the KXL pipeline. But the problem is too dire to think we can fix it with EV’s. Our German counterparts unplug all appliances at night except for the refrigerator. The Japanese and Dutch recycle bathwater. Just sayin.
I share your concerns.
However I believe that humans will survive, we are pretty adaptable.
I sincerely doubt that civilization will.
And I expect a massive die off as our resources shrink.
The inevitable conflicts over these finite and shrinking resources will make our world wars seem trite.
I believe that the “Arab Spring” is just the beginning of these wars for diminishing resources.
Cheers
Hey. Thanks for responding. The issue is that human beings might be able to survive that sort of weather. But our food sources and the plankton that supply the earth with half its oxygen can’t.
The message that McPherson is trying to put out here is how we cope with this reality. Do we rise to the best that humanity can, or do we devolve into a series of wars and scrabbles over the last food the planet can supply?
More realism….
Here is an article to scare the bejabbers out of us:
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/jun/24/natural-resources-and-development-china
“If Dambisa Moyo’s calculations are correct, we are in big trouble – which makes the central premise of her book, Winner Takes All, all the more arresting. Governments across the world, she writes, have singularly failed to grasp what’s coming – with one sensational exception. “Simply put, the Chinese are on a global shopping spree.” State-sponsored Chinese corporations are busy buying up commodities across Africa, North America, the Middle East, South America – anywhere they can – in a concerted strategy to seize control of resources before the rest of the world wakes up to the looming crisis. They’re striking deals with what she calls the “axis of the unloved” – developing countries rich in commodities but poor in political and economic capital – in return for much needed investment, employment and infrastructure.”
For the rest of us…..it will be war….
I’m a born and raised gringo, I love the country of my birth but haven’t even been there in more than 12 years. Due to my business I am often the only ‘gringo’ (or on most other continents ‘american’) and am frequently asked to explain “what’s wrong with gringos?” It’s a hard question, and the answers aren’t all simple, but I do get to hear (and read) what the rest of the world thinks is wrong with us. I only lead with that because I’m not looking for an argument, nor am I just throwing a wrench in the predominate attitude here, looking to see what breaks. The Chinese are on that ‘buying spree’ because they are unloading all the increasingly (and soon to be worthless) dollars they’re sitting on. They’re building entire cities with no one to live in them…….looking to the future? I don’t know. But I do know they’re buying so much gold that they, at some time in the near future, may be able to back up their currency, like the dollar once was. Like Libya was about to switch to a gold backed currency, with the plan for a ‘United States of Africa’. The 133 tons of Libyan gold was the first thing to disappear, when the U.S. and it’s NATO gangster pals invaded through their Al Qaeda proxy, destroyed the water system of 70% of the country, committed genocide against all blacks in Libya, burnt the Christian churches and murdered the Christians that once used them. Same with Iraq. It wasn’t for oil, it was because he had, only months before, started selling Iraqi oil only in Euros. Also the first thing changed with the U.S. criminal ‘war of aggression’, as the Nuremberg Tribunal called’
“essentially an evil thing…to initiate a war of aggression…is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”
News out here in the real world is reporting that 33 tons of gold have been removed for it’s ‘protection’ (from Ukrainians I guess) Oh, and I forgot to mention that the U.S. attacks only countries with no private central bank, which changes as soon as the victim country is ‘liberated’. Germany and others want to redeem all their gold that the ‘Fed’ is storing for them, but when they said to send it back, the private Federal Reserve wouldn’t even let them see it. Said they’d send it back over a multi-year plan. Only in the first shipment (which was less than half the agreed on amount) gold bars marked ‘Fort Knox’ were found to be tungsten bars with only a gold veneer. It was top TV and printed news worldwide. China, in their buying spree also received some huge amount of similarly plated tungsten bars, marked ‘Fort Knox’ too. And the Clinton administration ordered something like 1.5 million tungsten bars of the size and shape of the no longer existent ‘gold reserves’ that Nixon ‘temporarily’ suspended from conversion for U.S. Treasury notes.
But I’m drifting off subject a bit, or being my usual long winded self more probably. The ‘news’ you are fed is so very different from what the other 96% of humanity gets, you could come to think it’s coming from another planet.
“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” And that comes directly from the mouth of the CIA director, Bill Casey, in 1981. So this isn’t my original idea, and the recent gutting of the Smith-Mundt Act made a lot of front pages worldwide…….but I never saw it in the few, but prominent, U.S. ‘news’ I check.
Now, finally comes my environmental connection to all this. These figures are from foreign press sources that I haven’t fact checked, but these are things that are in the press in Central and South America, Europe (East and West) and two African countries I’ve been in lately. Have you or anyone else heard the figure of 11,000 U.S. service personel that have died so far from the Depleted(not) Uranium weapons, and the probablility is that is just the tip of the iceberg, not even taking into account the 8% of the worlds landmass that is now contaminated with it. And each drone shot contaminates, with the 10 kilos of DU on each missile, the entire area for more than four billion years. Anybody that spends any time in it will develop cancer in 15 or so years. And only the U.S. and Israel use it, last I checked. The history of the stuff and why it was never used in the many decades it existed, until the 1990s. How much of that kind of information is on U.S. ‘news media’?
I’m sorry for rambling and all, but I’m really worried the way history is repeating itself, with a very unaware, or willfully ignorant U.S. public. If anybody got this far and want a different look at the overall problems we all face, there’s a video called ‘All Wars are Bankers Wars’ that sums everything up far better than I.
I read this and will need to come back to it….too much to handle in a single run at it. I will return.
Thank you very much for your considered reply. I know I can come across as an idiot at times, to some, I assure you I’m not. And I’m not used to having all of my comments posted. In fact before running across this site they rarely were. But we are all at the edge of a great abyss and some peoples continued denial tortures me. I am naming no particular person and I know that I’m not alone, though at times it feels like I almost am. But what’s happening right now, in front of our faces, is everybodys problem. And time is running very short. Everything in the video I posted I learned in the early 1990s and I’ve known that in history there are very very few ‘accidents’ (I think FDR had something to say about that fact) And when I figured that the likelihood of me living to see the end was strong, I told myself (and anybody else that would listen) that it was going to be a real disaster. And I now think I was wildly understating things. Live and learn, I guess. I’d be most interested in your opinions after watching a pretty good video that contains information it took me a few years to put together, and said better than I probably ever could. It’s really really important that you know that information. It only scratches the surface, but it’s more than many can take. There is very little conjecture in the presentation and I am most interested in your opinion of the statements made and facts revealed. Thanks again and as the locals say, Pura vida Murph. Did they ever recover that big diamond (or was it some other precious stone?) Or was that a different Murph the Surf?
First I am glad that you found The Planet. There is an openness here that is very inviting.
Now to respond…..
I too have done quite a bit of traveling and lived overseas where I was told that I did not think or talk like most “yanks” folks there knew. I did not have the “America: the glorious city built upon the hilltop” approach of many which is mostly because I am a historian. I know the reality.
Your take on the Chinese buying spree is an accurate one as well. Let me add this to it: their own currency is starting to suffer as China’s growth sputters and the real cost of a propped up economy begin become clear. SO, it is also their own cash that they have dump.
I find your claim about AQ as a proxy for the U.S. and the EU curious. Anything to substantiate that. I can’t think of anything. In fact, quite the opposite. I do know that in Libya, Syria, and Iraq the Christian (and Jewish!) minorities have been driven, in large part, from the countries….Islam, in its radical phases, is every bit as intolerant as Christianity and Judaism ever were.
I regard the Iraq War as a blatant act of naked aggression by the neocon cabal that controlled the White House…done for Gold, God and Glory- the motivation for all modern imperialism.
“Germany and others want to redeem all their gold that the ‘Fed’ is storing for them, but when they said to send it back, the private Federal Reserve wouldn’t even let them see it.” Again, looking for corroboration here. I can’t imagine the EU putting up with that.
There is a lot of conspiracy theory stuff in your comments- not that there are not real conspiracies- but one has to provide the proof for others to take them seriously. My own conjectures on the Iraq War were scoffed at years back and are now widely accepted….the key was to offer the narrative, the data that provided backup to the hypotheses.
I watch Al Jazeera America, BBC, and read the international press to widen my view.
Fantastic Quote…..“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” And that comes directly from the mouth of the CIA director, Bill Casey, in 1981…..Source please…I want to use it.
Here is a key paragraph…..
“Now, finally comes my environmental connection to all this. These figures are from foreign press sources that I haven’t fact checked, but these are things that are in the press in Central and South America, Europe (East and West) and two African countries I’ve been in lately.”Remember that a LOT of the world’s press is directly controlled by government and a LOT MORE is owned by their own versions of Murdoch and News Corp….be careful…liars come wrapped in the flags of every nation.
“Have you or anyone else heard the figure of 11,000 U.S. service personel that have died so far from the Depleted(not) Uranium weapons, and the probablility is that is just the tip of the iceberg, not even taking into account the 8% of the worlds landmass that is now contaminated with it.” VERY CONTROVERSIAL IDEA THAT I HAVE READ IN SEVERAL SOURCES….BUT I DID NOT FIND THEIR RESEARCH CONVINCING. Still there is a lot of smoke and I am looking for the fire. Perhaps you have it spotted.
Lastly, all you say could be true but the onus of proof is on the person who makes statements that run contrary to the commonly accepted so-called “truth.”
My suggestion….take one of the several intriguing ideas here and really track it down. Get to the bottom of the charges and then craft a complete narrative/article including your sources. Post it NOT as a comment but as a full fledged article.
If you need help negotiating the publishing tool many here are willing to help.
Divergent opinion supported by convincing narrative is often eye-opening.
Thanks for all your work on this.
Are you serious, you can’t see how Al Qaeda could possibly be a proxy for the U.S. and Europe? Really?
The commonly accepted explanation given by the US government to promote and justify waging America’s longest lasting wars in its history, fighting and dying on multiple war fronts and allocating unprecedented amounts of US taxpayer dollars bleeding a shaky, faltering economy dry, while financing annual Defense budgets greater than the entire rest of the world combined should give you a clue. That’s how much Al Qaeda is our sworn enemy… LOL. Giving away our hard earned tax dollars to the detriment of a shrinking middle class and a swelling underclass of disenfranchised poor increasingly unable to make ends meet. Watching this should help you get a general idea of what is happening. The American public has made a very grave self-sacrifice in its post-9/11 lost civil liberties, all for the sake of so called security at home so American Empire can keep us safe from those swarthy mean looking Muslim terrorists who will gladly die for Allah just to kill us. LMAO…
Yet if the designated Al Qaeda enemy is so much against America and wishes to kill the American people, why over the last three years are more of our tax paying dollars going to Al Qaeda fighting America’s proxy war in Syria against Bashar Al Assad’s government forces? And why was Al Qaeda the first hired guns on the ground to go into Libya right after the US-NATO bombings three years ago? And why to this day after removing the supposed bad guy Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi are Al Qaeda still in control in Libya? Why are our taxpaying dollars for years at a time filling our supposed enemy Al Qaeda’s pockets in places like Syria and Libya? And why does Al Qaeda keep showing up as US’s surrogate troops on the ground in nations around the world, wherever US foreign policy agenda calls for destabilization and regime change?
Historically US foreign policy is synonymous with American Empire firmly rooted and immersed in US imperialism. By the end of overt European colonialism and independence of scores of developing nations after World War II, the US government’s cold war power grab began opportunistically filling the imperialistic void. And as a result, through countless acts of covert terrorism executed primarily by the CIA, coups and assassinations of even democratically elected leaders became routine around the world. Most notably in 1953 Iran and 1973 Chile, CIA with US military intelligence murdered leaders imposing regime changes in a host of ill fated sovereign independent nations with democratically elected leaders.
What about operation Gladio? Gladio was part of the post-World War II campaign designed by CIA and NATO to undermine and neutralize Soviet communist invasions and influence in Italy and Western Europe. But in reality, it was nothing more than a state-sponsored right-wing terrorist network involved in false flag operations and the subversion of democracy. And just as it was then and still is today, covert acts of terrorism and false flag operations have come to characterize US foreign policy even more so today, from the heavy, protracted counterinsurgency war losses in Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan to virtually every Third World nation on the planet.
A decade ago President Reagan’s National Security Council Director Lt. General William Odom said:
“Because the United States itself has a long record of supporting terrorists and using terrorist tactics, the slogans of today’s war on terrorism merely makes the United States look hypocritical to the rest of the world. By any measure the US has long used terrorism. In ’78-79 the Senate was trying to pass a law against international terrorism – in every version they produced, the lawyers said the US would be in violation.”
Those who want to see the truth do, those who would rather not, look for explanation and excuse.
words have meaning.
Proxy:
1 the agency, function, or office of a deputy who acts as a substitute for another
2 authority or power to act for another
b a document giving such authority; specifically : a power of attorney authorizing a specified person to vote corporate stock
3 a person authorized to act for another
You are going to have provide substantial evidence that AQ was deputized to act for the U.S. and EU by the U.S. and EU.
Because AQ doctrine and action fits into the neocon priorities does not meen AQ is a proxy for the neocons.
And yes, I am serious.
Do you also hold to the theory that FDR conspired with Japan in the attack of Pearl Harbor? That do is out there….
Hear, hear !! Very well said. I would caution you on one thing though, that being, this is the information age and those of us who live in the U.S. have access to news from around the world are informed. Not all of us are asleep in our cubicles or on the sofa or in bed or wherever people tend to try to allow their bodies to rest. We are aware. The Depleted Uranium story was in the news in 2005, 06, etc., here are a couple of the stories.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/du_death_toll.html
http://www.globalresearch.ca/depleted-uranium-death-toll-among-us-war-veterans-tops-11-000/3620
and I could give you access to many other web sites and news organizations that were reporting this info.
As far as China and their Ghost cities, that has also been in the news. Here is a clip from YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpnoPhY1f70
As far as the reason for the U.S. going to war in Iraq because of the Iraqi plan to switch from dollars to Euro’s, that again is true, but is not something we as U.S. citizens did not know. CNN did a piece on it in 2000.
http://edition.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/10/30/iraq.un.euro.reut/
Those of us who try desperately to read between the lines and go behind the scenes for information when something as immoral as the Bush administrations Iraq war, don’t rely solely on U.S. media for information, however if one is vigilant, one can find the information needed.
You don’t want me to begin talking about the Federal Reserve and what a catastrophe I believe our allowing private citizens to control U.S. currency is so I’ll just stop there. Just wanted to reassure you of the fact that those of us who live in the U.S. are neither unaware nor willfully ignorant, but are just as you are, unable to affect the change that is needed because the bankers control everything, and in this world, those who have the power of the purse tend to get his or her way until society decides they no longer wish to be bought or to buy into the deceptions that continually keep us distracted.
I hope WE, all of us, soon wake up and begin to realize this planet is capable of supporting all of us if we stop allowing those that would decide they should have a greater portion than others the opportunity to see their wishes come to fruition.
All Wars are Bankers Wars, War is a Racket and always for profit..Bankers, vulture capitalist, etc., are always behind them. 🙂
I loved reading your comment, it’s good to know there are people all over the world who are honing in on the reasons why we have so much trouble and strife in the world. Thank you.
Great piece and oh so important. It mystifies me that a certain segment of the population, science-deniers, are so willing to bring about their own demise rather than want generations of humanity to continue. All of the fighting over money (a complete figment of man’s imagination) won’t save the wealthy as they will have as much of a fighting chance as anyone.
I’m disgusted by so much, I wouldn’t know where to start…
Well said sillylittleme, very well said. 😉
It is so much easier to believe the denial and side with the deniers….comforting in fact…after all did God not give ALL of the earth to Adam and Eve? Yes, and in record time their decision making disrupted the natural order.
It must have been all that fornication… ;=}
And thus creation got all f’d up?
Hysterical fits of laughter.
And who got the blame? The wife, and maybe that talking snake too. 😉
Oh- I vote for Adam…..blaming the wife and the family pet….